Ze Ztuds - DIY (pt. 4)

I know, I know... you all can now breathe because of all of those overly anticipated and suspenseful moments!

These are the jeanz. With a z. With the ztuds. With a z. Z's make everything cooler - so do X's but they're harder to pronounce - I think they're pronounced [ch] in Mayan. I guess all the rare letters in Scrabble - you know, the ones that only have one wooden game-piece equivalent, that are worth a whopping 10 points - are automatically bad-ass letters and should be substituted for their phonetic equivalent in everyday words.

Anyway,

Jeans: H&M (probably about $40 or so, that's generally the price for their jeans - this particular style is called "SQIN" - also known as skinny)

Studs: Mood fabrics (to be said with in a low voice, imitation of Tim Gunn) - I think about $4/per bag of 50 or so.

Make it work!

Sneak peak

Guess what DIY project, now finished, is coming up...! (Image via Jak&Jil)

Side note

I really really want these stickers.

They're stickers. For your keyboard. N is for ... NINJA! and, of course, they had to put P is for Pirate there too, because there would've been serious consumer issues (i.e. stolen booty) if they had neglected to include both teams. If you have no idea what I'm talking about click HERE.

Personally my favorite is Q is for Quaker. Mostly because I'm shocked that:

a) it was the first one I saw (who knows why my eye was drawn to the wayyyy upper left hand corner of the keyboard - there must be some insane in depth socio-psychological significance for this)

and b) I instantly thought: QUAKER OATS MAN!

I also thoroughly enjoy G is for geisha, because of the semi-sexual reference of it, Y is for yeti because, well... that's awesome and B is for Bowie, because these stickers are partly marketed as: "from cultural icons to Greek mythology, this keyboard sticker set will advance the alphabetical knowledge of any child, or adult" and I would love to know what 21st century child has the adept cultural knowledge to understand the art that is Bowie.

Christopher Monro DeLorenzo makes these crazy stickers and many other very cool things that you can browse HERE.

Reinvention - DIY (pt. 3)

Photos by Kevin Colombu

"When you place a value on things like health, love, sex, and other things and learn to place the material value on what you've previously discounted for being merely untangible - a thing not seen - you realize you're much much wealthier than you ever imagined." - Rory Sutherland, Life lessons from an ad man

Blazer - Vintage Ralph Lauren - a real steal at Thrifty Shoppy (also known as Thrifty Shopper for those who don't feel the need to rhyme everything) for about $14

Shoulders - two necklaces (the kind that originally came with black satin ribbons to tie around the neck - it would've made for a golden crescent moon shape atop the collar bones) from Forever 21 (I was suprised, too!) - $18 each

I'm a fan.

Reigning in our disposable lifestyles - DIY (pt. 2)

And another post of vanity!

Blazer - Village des Valeurs (Pie IX, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA) - about $4 - with black velvet lapels

Feather stencil - found at an awesome second hand clothing / costume rental store called Eva B on St. Laurent (in Montreal); thick ink (feels almost like black glue) on muslin fabric, made by local artist (unnamed) - about $7

Dark blue + black and white = great combo

photos by Kevin Colombu (http://www.kevincolombu.com/blog/)

Puffy DIY (pt. 1)

The following will be a series of photos by Kevin Colombu (his blog here) of some of the DIY projects I've been working on. They're mostly shoulder oriented, but that's what I'm into right now, so... tough.

Also, yes, I realize how incredibly modest these posts will be.

You may notice that this is from a couple months ago, but originated as military epaulets. Well, I went in a different direction because I realized that the fabric of the H&M dress would be too stretchy to handle the original fringe-and-patch idea - which I really wanted to be straight and solid. So when I found these in what I like to call a "beads-n-stuff" store in NYC's garment district, I thought they would be perfect as a shoulder detail.

Hip Horror - Tim Burton at the MoMA

Tim Burton knows how to make gruesome, vile and morbid visuals hilarious. His artistic style is fluid, detailed and colorful all at the same time and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the expo at the Moma last weekend. Wait. I should really say "waddling" instead of walking because I've never seen so many hipsters and children in my life. It was packed and I am thankful I bought tickets online beforehand because I certainly don't think I would've been able to get in without doing so. Either way, Tim Burton's twisted style was beautifully presented (black lights to make the neon pop out as 3D, some "making of" videos here and there, audio, story boards, sculptures (about 20 of Jack's (from the Nightmare Before Christmas) clay heads with different facial expressions), THE Edward Scissorhands costume, Batman masks, all sorts of things from Mars Attacks and so many more trinkets, doodahs and watchamacallits), even though he says that he had "never really considered [this stuff] to be art or artwork mainly because it was not meant to be seen really - it was mostly the thought process when [he] was working on movies".

Part of the advertising campaign (as seen next to the S train in Times Sq.) It reminds me a little bit of Edward Gorey's "The Ghastlycrumb Tinies". If you don't know about that little 26 page book, you MUST check it out here.

Ok, back to Señor Burton:

One of my favorites. Macabre yet mirthful.

"Loghead discusses with

his psychiatrist his

recurring nightmare

about a crazed lumberjack

and a fireplace"
Evil cupid. I love the way he does the lines - if you look at it closely, the hands and feet are very bizarre yet somehow perfect for the overall wicked effect.

Some amazing photos of the exhibit by Kevin Colombu (as usual, beautiful pictures even though he had to be one zneaky photog to get them):

Song of the day: Ellie Goulding - Under the Sheets